A conventional vise has a fixed jaw and a movable jaw between which a workpiece can be clamped. One disadvantage with a vise of this type is that it is not possible to center workpieces of different sizes with respect to an external member by simply clamping the workpiece in the vise.
To provide for locating of a workpiece along a line or axis, it is known to mount both of the jaws for movement together toward and away from each other. Although this arrangement locates the workpiece along a line with respect to an external member, it does not provide for centering the workpiece with respect to such external member. In other words, it is not possible with this arrangement to accurately locate workpieces in a plane or center workpieces of varying sizes with respect to an external member.
The centering of a workpiece, regardless of its size with respect to an external member, is desirable in various situations. For example, it may be desired to drill a hole in the center of workpieces of different dimensions. With conventional vises, this requires a separate setup of the vise and drill press for each different size workpiece. This is undesirably time consuming.